Too Many Voices

In quarantine, some regions are strict, others lax. Some are not under orders to shelter in place. As some families become stir crazy, others find a routine of purpose and activity. They keep up their spirits. They learn to enjoy each other in ways they hadn’t imagined.


Some of us are even admiring each other’s lengthening hair, curls and waves!


Other families find activity outlets in their yard, jogging trails, or nearby wooded areas. If they keep their distance from others, they may realize all is well. Or at least better than they had thought.


Of course, there are those who do badly in quarantine. They fret. They stew over being cooped up. They see others reacting to the same pressure. Protestors organize and appear in public places. Signs, banners, spontaneous parades of honking vehicles, and hooded, masked gun toting protestors raise their voices. Menacing. Loud. Disruptive. Rude.


How much of this is show? How much is organized political hooliganism?


Or, maybe, these people honestly are losing self-control? They can’t handle the threat of illness, rules that restrict their freedom of movement, or what? Why is this a thing with them? I’m trying to understand.


I listen to the pandemic reports. Scientists are doing their lab work. Health professionals are studying the data on the virus, its origins, its spread around the globe, the treatments that work, the ones that don’t. They look for changing patterns of the disease itself, and how people are acquiring it. They study, too, how many people have avoided it.


Do the restrictions work? They appear to. All the while data is collected and analyzed to determine if we are turning the corner with the disease, and when we might get back to normal.


While the serious people do the hard work, others without knowledge but plenty of emotion, question everything and everyone. Even the president is questioning whether quarantine is needed much longer. Because the economy has tanked, he wants people to get back to work and save the economy before the election in November. He wants his rallies. He wants his image to look good, untarnished.


Those are not good reasons to reopen the nation at this time. Maybe it is good reason for him and his supporters, but it is not good for the American people. The science agrees with this conclusion.

Besides, if science is right, we are safe. If it is wrong, we are still safe.


Can’t say the same for the other argument.

I wonder how much of these reactions are about trust? Trust in others that bring us order and governance?


May 5, 2020